"Gnomes of Zürich Gnomes of Zürich is a slang term for Swiss bankers. Swiss bankers are popularly associated with extremely secretive policies, while gnomes in fairy tales live underground, in secret, counting their riches. Zürich is the commercial centre of Switzerland. After World War II, British Labour party politicians were worried about speculation against the pound undermining the economic regime. Economic growth in the United Kingdom was low, only half that of Germany and France. The demand for pound sterling started to fall. Although Swiss bankers had been criticised in Britain since the 1950s, the term ""gnome of Zürich"" originated"
"Bank Leu. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Union Bank of Switzerland, which was at best the third largest bank in Switzerland would catch up to its larger peers and by the 1970s surpass them in terms of size. UBS opened branches and acquired a series of banks in Switzerland growing from 31 offices in 1950 to 81 offices by the beginning of the 1960s. Throughout the 1950s, UBS was the most acquisitive bank in Switzerland, acquiring Banque Palézieux & Cie. (1948), Volksbank Interlaken (1952), Weck, Aebi & Cie (1954), Banque Tissières fils & Cie. (1956), Banque de Sion (1956),"
"against Bevan for the party leadership. Gaitskell appointed him Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1955, and he proved to be very effective. One of his procedural moves caused a substantial delay to the progress of the Government's Finance Bill in 1955, and his speeches as Shadow Chancellor from 1956 were widely praised for their clarity and wit. He coined the term ""Gnomes of Zurich"" to ridicule Swiss bankers for selling Britain short and pushing the pound down by speculation. He conducted an inquiry into the Labour Party's organisation following its defeat in the 1955 general election, which compared Labour's"
"be the Wall Street of Switzerland. The new bank used different names in its three core languages: German, French and English. In German, the bank was Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft and was known by the initials SBG. The original English name for the combined bank was the Swiss Banking Association, but it was later changed to Union Bank of Switzerland in 1921 to mirror the French form of the name: Union de Banques Suisses. The bank's logo, introduced in 1966, would later reflect both the German SBG and the English and French name UBS. Bank in Winterthur The Bank in Winterthur is"
"series of banks in Switzerland in the following years, growing from 31 offices in 1950 to 81 offices by the early 1960s. In 1960, Union Bank of Switzerland acquired an 80% stake in Argor SA, a Swiss precious metals refinery founded in 1951 in the canton of Ticino. UBS continues to issue gold bars via Argor-Heraeus which is famous for the unique kinebar holographic technology it uses to provide enhanced protection against bank gold bar counterfeiting. By 1962, Union Bank of Switzerland reached CHF 6.96 billion of assets, narrowly edging ahead of Swiss Bank Corporation to become the largest bank"
"Swiss banks ""have long adhered to an unwritten code similar to that observed by doctors or priests"". Since 1934, banking secrecy laws have been violated by four people: Christoph Meili (1997), Bradley Birkenfeld (2007), Rudolf Elmer (2011), and Hervé Falciani (2014). After insurmountable professional setbacks, all the men were either fired or resigned from their banks, served with federal arrest warrants and fined. The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) estimated in 2018 that Swiss banks held US$6.5 trillion in assets or 25% of all global cross-border assets. Switzerland's main lingual hubs, Geneva (for French), Lugano (for Italian), and Zürich (for German)"
"in Zurich on Bahnhofstrasse, considered to be the Wall Street of Switzerland. The new bank used different names in its three core languages: German, French and English. In German, the bank was Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft and was known by the initials SBG. The original English name for the combined bank was the Swiss Banking Association, but it was later changed to Union Bank of Switzerland in 1921 to mirror the French form of the name: Union de Banques Suisses. The bank's logo, introduced in 1966, would later reflect both the German SBG and the English and French name UBS. Toggenburger Bank"
"since the early 1900s. Whistleblowers, despite legal protections, have been treated with hostility from the public and often face professional set backs in Switzerland. Swiss bankers who maintain offices ""exclusively"" in Switzerland are shielded from a foreign state's lawsuits, extradition requests, and criminal charges, as long as they remain ""within"" the country's legal jurisdiction. In spite of minor adjustments to bank secrecy, bankers working in Switzerland and abroad at Swiss banks ""have long adhered to an unwritten code similar to that observed by doctors or priests"". Switzerland's main lingual hubs, Geneva (for French), Lugano (for Italian), and Zürich (for German)"
"Association: the ""Quatuor"" (1840) and the ""Omnium"" (1849), followed by ""Union financière de Genève"" (1890), which remained active until December 2013 under the name ""Groupement des Banquiers Privés Genevois"". In Basel, where the sector emerges much later than in Geneva, around the mid-19th century, Private bankers were responsible for founding the Swiss Bank Corporation (which merged with UBS in 1998). Indeed, Basel private bankers created two separate banking syndicates, the ""Bankverein"" and the ""Kleiner Bankverein"". The former set up the ""Basler Bankverein"", the ancestor of SBC, in 1872, while the latter founded the ""Basler Handelsbank"", purchased by SBC in 1945."
"accounting firms with international reputations who were licensed to audit banks in Switzerland. The investigation covered a period of some 60 years, from 1933 to 1995. Some 254 Swiss banks existing in 1945 were investigated, which covered 82% of the banking system. External costs which were borne by the Swiss banks totaled some CHF 300 million and some 650 accountants participated in the study. At the outset, there was a certain uneasiness in some of the banks with such an intrusive process. However, this changed, and the committee was able to report that only one bank, the Banque Cantonale de"
"largest client. In 1945, SBC acquired the ""Basler Handelsbank"" (Commercial Bank of Basel), which was one of the largest banks in Switzerland, but became insolvent by the end of the war. SBC remained among the Swiss government's leading underwriters of debt in the post-war years. SBC, which had entered the 1950s with 31 branch offices in Switzerland and three abroad, more than doubled its assets from the end of the war to CHF 4 billion by the end of the 1950s and doubled assets again in the mid-1960s, exceeding CHF 10 billion by 1965. In 1961, SBC acquired ""Banque Populaire"
"has had exclusive control of the ‘private banker’ trademark in Switzerland since that time. Swiss Private Bankers Association The Swiss Private Bankers Association is made up of banking institutions that meet the legal definition of a private banker according to Swiss law. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, and currently has six members. The Swiss Private Bankers Association was founded in 1934 following the enactment of the Federal Act on Banks and Saving Banks, which recognised the special status of private bankers. Its permanent secretariat is based in Geneva. The objective of the Swiss Private Bankers Association, as defined in its articles"
"those lenders seeking to influence the growth and development of the Swiss rail companies. Alfred Escher did not like this state of affairs. In 1856 he succeeded in establishing a new bank, Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (now known as Credit Suisse), primarily for the purpose of securing financing for his own rail company, the Swiss Northeastern Railway. Increasingly, however, Escher's bank financed other public and private sector endeavours too, thereby developing into an important lender for the Swiss economy and the founding institution of the Zürich's financial centre. Despite the expansion of the rail network in the 1850s, there was still a"
"Swiss Bankers Association The Swiss Bankers Association is a professional organization of Swiss financial institutions. The trade association known as the Swiss Bankers Association was founded in 1912 in Basel, Switzerland. It is the primary industry group representing the Swiss Banks to the government of Switzerland and to the governments of other states. The unity provided by this organization allows the various Swiss Banks, from the ""Big Two"" (UBS and Credit Suisse) down to the smaller community and cantonal banks, to collaborate on various issues of importance to the banking community. The Swiss Bankers Association main goal is to maintain"
"banks. The designation ""politically exposed person"" dates back to the late 1990s, in what was known as the ""Abacha Affair."" Sani Abacha was a Nigerian dictator who organized a large scale, systematic theft of assets from the Nigerian central bank for some years with his family members and associates. It is believed that several billion dollars were stolen, and that the funds were transferred to bank accounts in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In 2001, the Nigerian Government that succeeded the Abacha Regime made an effort to recover the money. It lodged complaints with several European agencies, including the Federal"
"for the private banking sector. According to Swiss National Bank statistics, there were 81 private bankers in Switzerland at the end of 1941, but only 17 in 2000. This consolidation took three different forms: First, several private bankers, such as Ehinger & Co. in Basel or Ferrier Lullin & Cie in Geneva, were acquired by large Swiss banking groups. Second, some private bankers changed their legal structure, becoming listed or unlisted limited liability companies mainly to resolve succession issues or as a way of financing their growth, such as Julius Baer & Cie in 1975, Vontobel in 1984 and Sarasin"
"positions were filled by legacy Swiss Bank professionals. Today, what was SBC forms the core of many of UBS's businesses, particularly UBS Investment Bank. Swiss Bank Corporation traces its history to 1854. In that year, six private banking firms in Basel, Switzerland, pooled their resources to form the ""Bankverein"", a consortium that acted as an underwriting syndicate for its member banks. Among the original member banks were Bischoff zu St Alban, Ehinger & Cie., J. Merian-Forcart, Passavant & Cie., J. Riggenbach and von Speyr & Cie. The establishment of joint-stock banks in Switzerland such as Swiss Bank's earliest predecessors (often"
"officials including senator Alfonse D'Amato R-NY, who held hearings of the Senate Banking Committee in which he claimed to possess ""recently declassified documents that shed new light"" on the Swiss role in the war. He also claimed that ""hundreds of millions of dollars"" of war-era Jewish assets remained in Swiss banks. At the behest of President Bill Clinton, Undersecretary of Commerce Stuart Eizenstat testified at these hearings and commissioned a report which accused Switzerland of being ""Nazi Germany's banker."" The report relied exclusively on U.S. government archives. It contained no new historical information on Nazi victims' deposits into Swiss banks,"
"the French form of the name: Union de Banques Suisses. The bank's logo, introduced in 1966, would later reflect both the German SBG and the English and French name UBS. UBS acquired a number of banks in its first decade as a combined bank and expanded its branch network, establishing representation throughout Switzerland by 1923. UBS acquired a controlling interest in Aargauische Creditanstalt in 1913 and Banque Ch. Masson & Cie. in 1916. Although the bank suffered during World War I and the postwar economic crises in Europe, UBS continued to make acquisitions after the conclusion of World War I."
"for centuries, the Swiss Federal Assembly made it a federal criminal offence in 1934 with the passage of the landmark legislation, the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks. Colloquially known as the Banking Law of 1934 or the Swiss Banking Law of 1934, it codified banking secrecy. The Federal Assembly enacted the law to quell controversy over the alleged tax evasion of wealthy French businessmen, military generals, and Catholic bishops. An additional provision, Article 47(b), was drafted before its ratification to protect Jewish assets from the Nazi party. Along with protecting German Jewish assets, Swiss banks collaborated with Nazi"
"as a union of cooperative societies. In 1927, the ""Verband Schweizerischer Konsumvereine"" and the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions founded the Coop Bank (as ""Genossenschaftliche Zentralbank""). Named Coop Bank in 1995 and owned by the Basler Kantonalbank since 1999. The Coop Bank undertook a comprehensive rebranding and became the Bank Cler on May 19, 2017. In 1969, the ""Verband Schweizerischer Konsumvereine"" became the Coop. Coop was one of the first self-checkout providers in Switzerland, introducing its own system called Passabene in 2005. It is in use in 80 stores. Coop uses the MC17T Retail Mobile Computer by Motorola Solutions for"
"Interhandel Basel in 1967, Phillips & Drew in 1986, and Schröder, Münchmeyer, Hengst & Co. in 1997 among others. The historical UBS logo features a horizontal acronym ""UBS"" referring to the ""Union Bank of Switzerland"", ""Union de Banques Suisses"" or ""Unione di Banche Svizzere"". The vertical acronym ""SBG"" refers to the name of the bank in German ""Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft"". ""UBS"" ceased to be considered a representational abbreviation for the Union Bank of Switzerland after the bank's 1998 merger with Swiss Bank Corporation and is today considered a standalone brand. By the 1980s, the bank had undertaken a major push into"
"full-service bank with a domestic retail banking network and an asset management business. SBC prospered throughout the 1950s and embarked on a period of sustained growth. The bank, which had entered the 1950s with 31 Branch Offices in Switzerland and three abroad, more than doubled its assets from the end of the war to CHF4 billion by the end of the 1950s and doubled assets again by the mid-1960s, exceeding CHF10 billion in 1965. SBC acquired Banque Populaire Valaisanne, Sion, Switzerland, and the Banque Populaire de Sierre. The firm continued to open new offices in the US in the mid-1960s"
"partner bears unlimited liability for all the commitments entered into by the bank. This is one of the main characteristics of private bankers. The term ‘private bankers’ is often confused with the term ‘private bank’, which refers more broadly to any bank focusing on private wealth management, most of which are structured as a limited company. To prevent improper use of the term ‘private banker’ by people or institutions that do not meet the legal definition, the Swiss Private Bankers Association registered ‘private banker’ and its linguistic variations with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property in 1997. The SPBA"
"reasons. In particular the Swiss were, and continue to be, criticised for the way they aided the shipment of Nazi funds abroad and provided banking facilities for the concealment of looted art treasures and gold, much of it stolen from Jews. In late 1943 safes at a Swiss bank at Interlaken were rented by high-ranking Germans to store funds. Later, high-ranking Nazi officials withdrew their deposits from German banks and transferred large sums to Swiss banks and to the Swedish Consulate at Karlsruhe. Italian and Swiss press reports also stated that many leading Italians banked large sums in Swiss francs"
"The Swiss Private Bankers Association was founded in Bern, on 29 November 1934, following the adoption of the new Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks on 8 November 1934. The law recognised the special status of private bankers but also suggested ‘closer collaboration’ amongst them. The aim of the association was to represent ‘the professional interests of private bankers’. Forty-eight banks applied to become members. Its first Chairman was Max Ernst Bodmer. With two World Wars, the Stock-Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, the first half of the 20th century was a difficult period for private bankers."
"remaining 12 members: to adapt to the requirements international financial centres unfamiliar with the traditional Swiss definition of a private banker, some private bankers chose to break with ‘more than 200 years of history’ by changing their structure to limited liability companies. This was the case for Landolt & Cie in January 2013 followed in February 2013 by Pictet & Cie and Lombard Odier & Cie. Several months later, Mirabaud & Cie and La Roche & Cie followed suit. In February 2016, Gonet & Cie abandoned its private banker structure and became a holding company organised as a limited liability"
"the mid-18th century and in Geneva in the late 18th century as partnerships, and some are still in the hands of the original families such as Hottinger and Mirabaud. In Switzerland, such private banks are called private bankers (a protected term) to distinguish them from the other private banks which are typically shared corporations. Historically in Switzerland a minimum of CHF1 million was required to open an account, however, over the last years many private banks have lowered their entry hurdles to CHF250,000 for private investors. There are, as of 2006, 24 cantonal banks; these banks are state-guaranteed semi-governmental organizations"
"company. As a result, these banks no longer met the legal definition of a private banker with unlimited liability for the commitments of the bank. A new organisation, the Association of Swiss Private Banks, was founded on 1 January 2014: its articles of association allow it to admit as members both limited companies and traditional private bankers. The Swiss Private Bankers Association remains active today, with six members. In Switzerland, the Federal Law on Banks defines a ‘private banker’ as any bank organised as a sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership or limited stock partnership, in which one or more"
"Swiss Banks. Unlike Swiss Bank and Credit Suisse, which had both made aggressive international acquisitions in trading and investment banking, UBS’s investments had been more conservative in businesses such as asset management and life insurance while 60% of the bank's profits came from its even more conservative Swiss banking operations. In 1993, Credit Suisse outbid UBS for Switzerland's Swiss Volksbank, the fifth largest bank in Switzerland which had run into financial difficulties in the early 1990s. The acquisition propelled Credit Suisse ahead of UBS as the largest bank in Switzerland for the first time. UBS instead settled on a group"
"members founded the Swiss Party of Labour to replace the old Communist Party. Communist Party of Switzerland Communist Party of Switzerland (""Kommunistische Partei der Schweiz""), known as the ""Old Communists"" (""Altkommunisten""), was a historical Communist party, section of the Communist International. The Party originated from a group of left-wing socialists who were expelled from the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland in 1918. Fritz Platten was a central leader in the new Party. Bulgarian communist Solomon Goldstein was among the founders. The Swiss Communist Party was banned in 1940 because of their support of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the non-aggression pact between"
"Swiss Leaks Swiss Leaks (or SwissLeaks) is the name of a journalistic investigation, released in February 2015, of a giant tax evasion scheme allegedly operated with the knowledge and encouragement of the British multinational bank HSBC via its Swiss subsidiary, HSBC Private Bank (Suisse). Triggered by leaked information from French computer analyst Hervé Falciani on accounts held by over 100,000 clients and 20,000 offshore companies with HSBC in Geneva, the disclosed information has been called ""the biggest leak in Swiss banking history"". Investigators allege that 180.6 billion euros passed through HSBC accounts held in Geneva by over 100,000 clients and"
"heirs tried to recover their money following the war, many faced bureaucratic stonewalling by the banks which often seemed not to recognize the special conditions which had been experienced by Holocaust victims. A number of times after the end of World War II, Swiss banks came under criticism for their behaviour, particularly over the issue of the handling of dormant accounts, most of which were presumed to have belonged to victims of the Holocaust. During the next forty years, a number of rather feeble responses were undertaken. However, during the 1990s it became clear that there was a need for"